Getting to know Scott Robinson

Five years ago, Scott Robinson discovered the tiny hemlock woolly adelgid, native to Japan, on trees around his house in southwest Nova Scotia.The invasive insect has already killed thousands of hemlocks beyond his property in the Tobeatic Wilderness Area. He’s been trying to raise the alarm ever since. This past October, he led a massive three-week operation to inoculate all the old growth hemlocks on an island in Sporting Lake in the Tobeatic. Saltscapes spoke with Scott Robinson about primordial forests, maxed credit cards and cures for despair.

 

 

Have you always been interested in forests?

I grew up in Muskoka, Ontario. My initial interest in the outdoors was trapping, hunting and fishing. That waned over the last 30 years. I took a forestry technician course and a tree maintenance program. Now, I’m more interested in protecting than harvesting.   

Why did you move to Nova Scotia?

We moved here 20 years ago to farm cranberries. We love the fantastic people and interaction with the natural world that was getting harder to do in Ontario.

 

When did you first get interested in hemlocks?

As an arborist in Ontario, I worked on islands with old growth hemlocks. My place in Nova Scotia where I eat dinner faces a hemlock tree. It started to thin. I treated it, and now it’s looking as good as ever. I stare out at that tree and think thousands of trees are going to die.

 

What does the Tobeatic mean to you?

I live on the Roseway River which flows out of the Tobeatic. Every couple weeks, I go walking, biking or paddling there. It’s an important place, a big tract of land left completely to its own devices. I’ve never seen anything like the old growth hemlock stands there, primordial forest left alone for hundreds of years, moss six inches deep underneath your feet. It’s just a magical spot.

 

How long have you been working on this issue?

I’ve been really worried about it since 2019 and started lobbying government officials to see if they would protect old growth. No one was listening to anything I had to say.

 

How did this operation get started?

Dr. George Kovacs, really. I met him last spring when I treated his hemlock trees. I was struggling to find a project to get more people motivated. I said, donate a couple hundred dollars for pesticide. It’s a completely closed pesticide system. We’ll inject one tree and maybe someone will ask about the other 99 percent. I like to say Dr. Kovacs cured despair.

 

Why did you choose Sporting Lake?

Because of the 450-year-old trees, one of the best examples of old growth forest remaining in Nova Scotia. I was looking for a site that people would get behind. The moment you mention Sporting Lake, people get excited. It leaves a mark on people’s soul.

 

You maxed out your credit cards to get this done.

We needed to get the injection equipment ordered. When I was working on a private job, the client asked what I was doing. He said he could help. So, this guy I’d known for four hours was prepared to write a cheque for five grand to make room on my credit cards. Sporting Lake did that. It
brings out the absolute best in people.

 

How urgent was it to inoculate those trees?

We needed to start October 1 and be done by October 30. It was a tough deadline, but it’s not mine. It’s the trees’ deadline. We got there just in time.